Ethics in the digital workplace
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
Artsana Group is involved in the production of a variety of goods for babies. It owns several brands including Chicco, Prenatal, Pic solutions, Lycia, Control. Half of the prodution is sold in Italy, while other major markets are Europe and the US. In 2009 the company decided to offshore the production of pacifiers and similar products to India. Economic crisis, custom troubles, and competitors trying to stole industrial secrets have led the company to rethink the offshoring decision. The new CEO, De Conte, also aims to have a tigher control over the production cycle, to reduce total costs, to increase productivity in Italy and to bring production closer to customers and suppliers. Moreover, the backshoring should also support innovation and thus ease the competitors' pressure. The backshoring from India has been planned and announced in the second half of 2014, and should be implemented in the following years.
Eurofound (2014), Artsana, Reshoring in Italy, factsheet number 217, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/217.